Christian Iddon
T hey say that variety is the spice of life and since my last column I’ve had plenty, not spending a single night in my own bed having gone to Snetterton, K nockhill and even Norfolk. But firstly, I jumped on a big Ryanair flying fun-bus direct from the Isle of Man to lodge in Monaco with Eugene L averty and Bradley Smith…
I count them as little training camps as we get in as much peddling as we can (1,5 00km this month, roughly 6 5 hours on the bike) and fortunately they just happen to live in the same apartment block. Unfortunately for Brad this time it was his turn to have me as a lodger, and for three of the five days I was there he wasn’t so I just full on hammed it up and lived like a Monaco resident.
I borrow Eugene’s spare road bicycle and together (with the addition of some car racers) we chalk up hours and hours of training miles around France and Italy. It’s the perfect place to train with beautiful weather and roads, and in the evenings we just chill and watch whatever Motocross (or porn) we can find on the internet. Soon though it was time to hand back the keys to Brad’s apartment and get back on the plane to Blighty.
In the space of 2 4 hours I had gone from cycling with MotoG P , WSBK and F1 dudes on the C ote D ’Az ur to sheet piling on the Norfolk broads. I’d headed off early to Snetterton as one of my best mates lives half hour up the road and whenever I can, I go to stay with my Norfolk family. I rock up in the camper, plug myself in to their electric and that’s me all set up and ready to give him a lift at work. I actually enjoy working even though the team hate me doing it – two years ago I lost the end of my finger to the 100kg post knocker just days before the BSB race, but all was well in the end as I had the little sausage sewn back on before the weekend!
Back to racing though, and Snetterton was damn tough on me. I hadn’t ridden a bike since I broke my hand six weeks earlier and every single other rider had tested, raced or done both and that showed. It wasn’t until Race 2 where I actually felt good on the bike again as the team put a good package underneath me for the last run of the weekend and I got my head down. The result didn’t show after some early carnage but the pace was there, thankfully before heading west for a couple of nights on the sofa with Eurosport as a WSBK pundit. I’ve had chance lately to do a few bits of commentary but this was my first chance at being a pundit. I was on with H aslam and the now recovering Shakey Byrne (and the addition of his extra metal bits).
I had a blast. Everyone was really helpful and Matt Roberts is a legend. It’s not until you see what they actually have to do before you can really appreciate how complicated it is. For us it’s simple but Matt being the anchor-man has a dude talking in his ear constantly telling him all sorts of stuff: from how long he has to talk, when the next ad break is, who is talking next etc. It’s really not easy and I have a new level of respect for that side of things – I hope they have me back.
From there on I headed straight to the centre of L ondon to collect my J apanese visa (oh yes… the next column is Suz uka! ) before the trek all the way to Bonnie Scotland for a one day test at K nockhill, then to C adwell for another test in which I had the mother of all crashes. I’ve been getting pretty good at BMW shot put this year and it’s certainly not like me to do it but this one really wasn’t my fault. I hit a false neutral into turn one and went over the grass at about 140mph. I quite badly underestimated how poorly a superbike would handle on grass at that speed and was suitably (and not nicely) surprised when I was flung clean over the handlebars at 12 0mph plus. Anyways, I got up somehow unscathed and I’m counting that as fortune turning in my favour.
So there we have it. I’m looking forward to getting back in my own bed… for two nights. Next stop: Suz uka.